Top Shell investor vents anger at boss pay

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Shell could become one of the most high profile casualties of this year’s Shareholder Spring after a top investor and several leading advisory groups hit out at the company’s plans to award a multi-million pound bonus to its chief executive Ben van Beurden on the back of an 80pc plunge in annual profits.

Ashley Hamilton Claxton, corporate governance manager at Royal London Asset Management, said: “The senior executive pay awards last year are not sufficiently justified by the company’s financial performance. Whilst the board did exercise some discretion in reducing the awards, we believe they could have done more.”

“The peer group of four companies that Shell uses to benchmark its long-term...